What I've Been Up To

There's so much to say, and some of it will undoubtedly be left out, but here goes:

Jed, Emily, and I went to the Transportation Museum forever and ever ago. I would put up some photos but it takes forever and I have a ton. I set up a photobucket account that I'm probably going to link to more often in the coming year. The first set on there is the Transportation Museum photos that you can see here. We went to the scariest diner in the whole world on that day and got yelled at. The good part was the wonderful soda that Jed and I had that seemed to be a mix of the maraschino cherry juice and soda water. It was delicious. There were lots of cool things at the transportation museum including steam cars, trains, and an awesome old balloon basket. The best part was the "ride" on the train turner arounder thingy. The Christmas version of the regular train ride was scary. Overweight country chicks in short skirts and a Santa giving out hugs and sticky touching made it memorable but not enjoyable.

Christmas for the Mann-Paddock house was a time of great joy. There were multiple parties and I saw Nana. Also, I got tons of great loot. I am still sorting some of it! Emily almost gave up knitting after having to work so hard on presents for people (she had an adorable little yarn blister on her finger where the yarn rubbed!).

Emily and I went to Seattle this New Year as a little vacation before school got back in swing for the two of us. On Mon. Dec. 29th we hopped a plane to Seattle, land of rain. The little exit row seats (which used to be big and are now even smaller) were cramped for the flight there, and made the backseat of Emily's Dad's Prius seem huge. On Tues. we went to the Gas Works which is very Steampunky and cool. Some little goth kids were having their own photo shoot which was fun to watch. The whole thing was emblazoned multiple times with a stenciled sign that said, "Stay of Stucture" which was absolutely hilarious. Then we went to the Seattle Art Museum and took in the sights. The next day Emily, her sister, and I went down to Pikes Place Market to scope it out and then hit up the Seattle aquarium. The captive octopus were sweet and looked incredibly cool. Also, they had otters and seals swimmin' around all over. That night was New Years Eve, and we were thinking of going down to the space needle where the festivities were being held. Initial reports that 11,000 people were going to be there made it seem less attractive. Instead we went up to Kerry Park and watched with hundreds of other people as the fireworks were shot off the space needle and off of boats in the sound. It looked amazing. Emily's sis left the next day to hang with her friends in another part of the state. Em's and her dad and I went to the monorail and rode it downtown and back to the EMP. It was my favorite day because we got to go to the Sci fi Museum. There were a few new additions since last time I went, most notable the flying ball-tree thing from The Fountain. It was incredibly fun and I think that Emily enjoyed it a little more this time. I loaded up on loot at the gift shop and had to be carried away by Em's before I maxed out my credit card. That night we watched Murderball, a really good documentary about paraplegic rugby players. I didn't want to watch it at first, but it really drew me in and was great once it started. Friday was the holy day. We ate at Lunchbox Laboratory where I had a Dork (duck and pork) burger with thick slabs of bacon and a Nuttela malt. It was the best meal I've had since Mom's Christmas Eve dinner, and I haven't topped it yet! Then we went to Archie McPhees, where I redeemed my gracious Christmas present from Emily's Dad and his girlfriend. We needed a wheelbarrow to carry my purchases out. That night we all went to the massive REI that had see through holes in the floor and lots of other crazy stuff. The next day we went to the Pacific Science Center where I got to see Lucy!!! It was the chance of a lifetime and was really cool to see. The whole display from the Ethiopian government was cool, and afterwards we had Ethiopian food. I ate a whole lamb. The last day in Seattle we got to check out the Locks and see a sailboat go up. It was capped off with dinner at Poppys and a drive home in the snow. Seattle is great and every visit is more fun than the last.

I'm back in school now and enjoying my classes so far. Some I think will be killer, but some are just gonna be fun. I have been riding my bike to class despite the weather. This changed the other night when my pedal fell off on the way to school. It was night time and freezing and Emily brought me some tools after class to fix it. I thought I had done well (was in fact pretty proud of myself) when the pedal fell off again when I was crossing Friendly at the light. I have worked on it at home and think it's fixed, but want to test it some the weekend before lighting out for class one day and risking it breaking again. That damn bike is great, but I'm almost ashamed to take it in for repairs. My own little "fixes" are so makeshift that I'm embarrassed! The stem has kitchen utensils in it, the seat is nonadjustable (broke the bolt), and the whole thing looks like a little Frankenstein monster! I love it though and it has been working out great. If the pedal stays on at least!

The new apartment is working out okay, with the exception of our power bill. Emily and I have not used the heat since we moved in (I'm typing this in gloves!) and have been really conscientious about turning out lights and unplugging appliances. The bill has been massive, and the apartment complex says it isn't right. Duke Energy has been a really but about it, and even though they had to replace the entire rack of meter readers when they came to investigate, they still say that there was nothing wrong (I wondered what they were fixing then!). The power company's stance has been that we are lying liars and actually are using the heat. Hopefully this will just sort of work itself out, but I foresee more problems in the future.

I've been spending a lot of time watching old Gundam and Ghost in the Shell animes on Netflix and YouTube. Also, plenty of sci-fi short stories. These forms of entertainment really fit the bill in being a)cheap, b) short, c) easily accessible. I did see a pretty good movie the other day online. The sequel to Appleseed is actually pretty good. It's not Slumdog Millionaire by any means but it is really entertaining and action-y. Emily is over her knitting woes and is working again, this time on a hoodie for yours truly! I'm pretty excited about it. Especially since we aren't using the heat.

Emily's birthday is on Tues. and we are mostly going to celebrate this weekend, and Anna is probably going to have her munchkin sometime soon so there are lots of future topics looming.
That's all for now, hope that this catches us up and I wont fall so far behind again.